PEOPLE WHO DON'T "GET" AMERICA. PEOPLE WHO DON'T "GET" AMERICA. No, not
the anti-Ameican chattering classes - this time I'm talking about some fellow
Americans who are working on besmirching the good name of the logging town
of Clatskanie, here in Oregon. Many in the community - home to eight churches
of varying Protestant denominations - have no objection to the Zen Community
of Oregon converting an unused school building into a monastery and retreat
center. But some of its citizens sound creepily like certain other religious
fascists we've been hearing from lately. At a meeting sponsored by the Buddhists,
one said "Christians, why are you not standing to be counted?...Do you not
see the darkness? The aura of Satan is taking a foothold." A pastor of
a local congregation stated that "Our goal is to protect those that have
not yet accepted Christ." (From the Oregonian, Section B, pp.1 and 10, January 24, 2002. No online link. See related editorial here
.) I would like to think these people are just parents experiencing a moment
of Johnny Taliban paranoia. But they don't sound like it. I was flipping
around the talk radio stations yesterday afternoon while waiting in traffic,
and came across some woman babbling about how right those people in Clatskanie
were to be fighting against those Buddhists' owning property - because, well,
because of some incoherent reasoning about all those Buddhists, and Muslims,
and - I forget who else she included - being "against the Constitution",
or some such thing. Now, it is a fact that you can unearth certain types
of Muslims and Christians who are indeed "unconstitutional", in that they
wish to bring about the end of the secular state and prohibit free practice
of religion - like a few fine citizens of Clatskanie. Pretty damned treasonously
un-American attitude, that. But Buddhists?

Posted by Moira Breen at January 26, 2002 12:31 PM